Advance notice: “Intersex: Stories and Statistics from Australia”

In February, a report of last year’s survey of people born with congenital atypical sex characteristics will be published. 272 people with atypical sex characteristics responded to the survey, enabling a comprehensive analysis in the largest study of intersex Australians yet conducted.

It will be entitled “Intersex: Stories and Statistics from Australia” and the authors are Dr Tiffany Jones, Bonnie Hart, Morgan Carpenter, Dr Gavi Ansara, William Leonard, and Dr Jayne Lucke.

The book is peer reviewed and will be published by Open Book Publishers. It will be available as a free download. Data were collected anonymously, with disclosure and ethics approval.

As indicated in the title, the book contains a mixture of stories and statistics. This means that respondents may see your own words in the report. Given the nature of intersex health and human rights issues, many quotations also describe painful experiences. These words are crucial; they highlight the issues in ways that previous research and numerical data do not. Participants have received pseudonyms. We hope that this has been respectful, in ways that protect individuals but also allow the voices of people born with atypical sex characteristics to be heard.

We also recognise that this study is the first report of its kind, and future reports will learn from both the implementation and outcomes of this work.

If you have an intersex trait and you need to talk to someone then consider contacting volunteers at OII Australia and/or AISSGA. The QLife LGBTI helpline may also be able to help.